


Dreaming While Awake

by commandershakarian



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Angst, Gen, Spoilers, Trespasser DLC
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-16
Updated: 2015-09-16
Packaged: 2018-04-21 03:52:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4813928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/commandershakarian/pseuds/commandershakarian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Entry for drathe’s The Bard’s Tale Challenge for September<br/>Song given for challenge: “Blinding” by Florence + the Machine<br/>Pairings: Solas x f!Tabris, told from Cole’s POV<br/>Rating: G<br/>Content Warning: Contains spoilers from the Trespasser DLC. Read at your own risk!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dreaming While Awake

Nothing about the world was real. Not really. It was like what he’d said in the Fade at Adamant:

_“It should be like home. It’s not. This isn’t me, not this part.”_

This wasn’t her. Not really.

Once she’d be a whole person. Once, a long time ago, she had been awake. Once, she’d felt love.

Once, dreams had been kind. They’d been welcome.

When her eyes were closed, she saw him. When her eyes were opened, she saw him. He was a ghost, a phantom. A distant memory. She could reach out and touch him. She could reach out and miss him. He was everything and nothing. He was a dream while awake.

There was hurt in her. Hurt in her heart, love that she wished to share. A love she cannot. His eyes like storms, haunting, wild and unpredictable, much like the man behind them.

He tried to help. To heal the hurt. She didn’t want it gone. She wanted to remember. The details, sharp, focused, like they were real, not memories. It was hard, too hard sometimes. She missed him. Cole missed him too, but not like her. Hers was too deep to touch.

Alone. It was what she wanted. To be alone. But that was the problem. She was alone. She shouldn’t be.

Cole watched as Leila wiped a stray tear from her cheek, her thoughts on Solas. They were scattered, unfocused. They’d been this way before, after he had first left her. But this was worse. This hurt more.

A hand. A shoulder. It was so simple, but it meant so much. Watery eyes glanced up, blue like the sky above. They searched his face, searched for an answer to the only question they had.

_Why?_

“Cole, I-” She choked on the words, but she didn’t have to speak. He heard them nonetheless.

_I’m sorry you have to see me like this._

He nodded, the straw hat he wore bobbing with the movement. It caught her gaze and distracted her from the pain. It was enough.

“One door closes, but another always opens. He isn’t dead.”

She sighed, the sound tinged with relief, as if her heart needed to hear that. “You’re right, Cole. After everything, he is alive and there is still a chance.”

“But there’s worry?”

Another sigh, this one not as reassuring. “I’m far from being a little girl, Cole. Love, it’s not-”

“Love isn’t young. It makes the world shake. It’s lightning and dreams. It’s blood on the snow and a soft smile.” He lifted his hand from her shoulder and gave her a smile of his own. “It’s in you no matter how old you are. There is always a dream.”

One last tear before they stopped. She understood. “But I’m not dreaming.”

“So make the world shake.”

Eyes, like gemstones sparkling in the sun. The hurt was gone. The spell broken. In its place, was thunder. The Fade would shake with it. Solas would have nowhere to hide.

Thunder to lightning. Rain to snow. It was like a song. One gave life to the other.

Leila Tabris would bring the world to its knees.

He wanted to help.


End file.
